MUSICA Festival to honor Ezell’s founder for his work in music

P-I reporter Casey McNerthney in November wrote a touching obituary about Samuel Stephens, best known in the Seattle area as the Ezell’s Famous Chicken founder.

Stephens

Stephens, also a hip-hop mogul, this week will be honored during the opening ceremonies of the fourth-annual MUSICA Festival, which pays tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

The event is scheduled for Thursday at the Paragon Restaurant on Queen Anne.

Stephens grew up the youngest of seven children in Marshall, Texas. He moved to Seattle and, in 1984, started Ezell’s Famous Chicken with his brother, Ezell Stephens, and three childhood friends.

He left the restaurant after starting his music career, but Stephens, who most recently lived in Lynnwood — where Ezell’s has one of its six locations — remained on the restaurant’s board until his death.

Stephens ran Clear Head Entertainment for years until closing it in the late 1990s, his brother said. He later became a car salesmen at Harris Ford in Seattle and Lynnwood.

“Without him, I’d go so far as to wonder if there’d be a Blake Lewis,” his friend and KUBE 93 FM radio director Tony Benton said in October, referring to the beatboxing “American Idol” runner-up from Bothell. “He sowed the seeds of hip-hop in Seattle. That’s Sam’s legacy.”

The tribute is expected to feature a group of artists who recorded with Stephens or were signed to his record label, including Silver Shadow D, E-Dawg and Roc-fella. A performance is planned by Candyman, who is expected to play his 1990 hit “Knockin Boots” with the group Goodybagg.